Book Reviews and Articles

Can anyone replace Steve Jobs? That's what a lot of analysts, investors and customers are wondering now that the Apple CEO (AAPL) has indicated that he will take a medical leave of absence from the company–his third in the past few years.

Economic growth or deficit reduction? In the United States, there seems to be only one choice—though competing interests argue over which is correct. In the UK, however, the coalition government thinks otherwise. Rather than endlessly debating which priority is greater, David Cameron's administration has knuckled down and taken on both challenges simultaneously. While the decision is putting great strain on citizens throughout Britain, it is the proper course to pursue given the nation's high unemployment and elevated debt.

Imagine a world in which a child can attend school for just $1 per month and where a visit to a doctor costs less than a candy bar from a vending machine. Fantasy, right? Not to Cisco. We are working to make accessible education and affordable health care a reality for literally billions of people.

Here's a blast from the past that might rock your world next year: Rock-and-roll hall-of-famers Van Halen are reportedly reuniting in 2011 with former front-man David Lee Roth for a new tour and album..

"Even in the remotest times, long preceding the Christian era, the ancients understood the value of dignifying their harbors with impressive works. The Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharaohs of Alexandria were counted among the seven wonders of the world. ... But the bridge across the Golden Gate would dwarf and overshadow them all."

After the famous Toyota Way and later the HP Way, Cisco may now stake its claim to its own Way. Cisco’s ‘Doing Both’ strategy in the past seven years has helped double revenue, triple profits, and quadruple earnings per share.

For more than a decade, technology's elite companies have reigned supreme by following one fundamental business formula. They have each attracted a large following with innovative point products that they later transformed into technology platforms that were as appealing as they were inescapable.

People hate email. We read about it all the time, including in this column (but then I whine about a lot of things). Many people claim email is fading away as the malevolent primary tool of our workday and good riddance to it. Sounds good, at first blush.

Here, in Part 2 of his Guest Post, Cisco Systems (CSCO) SVP Inder Sidhu describes how he applied his strategy of "doing both" to succeed in America. This is an adapted excerpt from his recently released book, Doing Both: How Cisco Captures Today's Profits and Drives Tomorrow's Growth.

We strive to achieve at the office and succeed at home. We try to live for today and plan for tomorrow. We labor long and hard to give our children the things that our parents gave to us: roots to keep them grounded and wings to help them soar. As a son in the East and a father in the West, I "do both" whenever I can.

Inder Sidhu's Doing Both was number one on the Inc./800-CEO-READ Business Book Bestseller List in July. Jon recently sent him three questions he asks of all our best-selling authors, and I really enjoyed his answers...

The strategic insights that Doing Both provides are quite interesting -- such as how Cisco manages the partner channel, how they changed the channel strategy, the globalization initiative of Cisco, deputing talents to potential spin-in's, and the fabled Cisco operational committee's.

Focus on your core competency. Prioritize. Do one thing at a time. Business has used these mantras for at least the past 20 years. But Cisco SVP Inder Sidhu wants to ask you this: What if you can do both?

With a $133 billion market cap, networking giant Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is the largest player in its field. However, competition is rapidly expanding. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), and Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) are all aggressively pursuing their slice of the networking pie. Yet, in spite of this competition, Cisco keeps up its domination of the industry.